Wow, Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends predicted the modern news media climate with season 2, episode 12 episode "Bloo Done It."
Hello, catholiccontriversy here and I'm not going to say this was intentional. This episode aired July 8th 2005, when George W Bush was president, as part of an a-political children's cartoon. The writers (whom I just going to assume are politically left, because Hollywood), just wanted to write a funny story about the main character, and imaginary friend named Bloo, getting jealous and trying to destroy the credibility of another imaginary friend with his news paper. However, because highschool English class ruined me (a topic I'll cover at the end), I can't help but see the crazy similarities between this episode and the current political-media climate. Spoilers.
The episode starts with Bloo running a news paper, and directing his friends to write stories about how awesome he is. The stories are pretty tame, like "Fosters receives awesome kitchen sink" and "Coco wins spelling bee," but Bloo wants them to change them to "Bloo wins spelling bee," and "Bloo is awesome" because "that's what the people want to hear." And the similarities start here. Bloo's friends want to tell real news, but Bloo want's it to be about him. Sound like the main stream media? "Lets make this pro-Hillary, shall we." Oh, but it gets better.
The episode is primarily about an imaginary friend (named Uncle Pockets) returning to Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends because his kid no longer needs him, and he's called the greatest friend ever, and all the friends love him, except for Bloo, who can't understand why everyone loves him. He speaks in rhyme, and all the friends love him, and he has a personality and likability that makes him the most successful friend ever. See the similarities yet? Uncle Pockets is Trump, Bloo is the main stream media, and the other friends of the house are the voter base. Trump speaks to the voter base in a way that everyone loves, and he's one of the most successful businessman ever, and the MSM just can't understand why.
Now it gets really good. Bloo thinks he has something to hide, and he must be destroyed, because there's no way that he can't be that well liked without some sort of diabolical intervention. Wait, it gets better. Bloo wants to pry into his suitcase and Uncle Pockets naturally doesn't want Bloo to look in there, because it's none of his business. But Bloo runs with it and makes a big deal out of everything he does like eating pizza with a fork and drinking juice, calling it "su-spic-ious," and writing big hit pieces based on these non-stories. Lets see here; Trump-Russia collusion, Russia hacked the election because there's no way the American people could actually like him, Trump won't release his tax returns what's he hiding, and 2-scoops trump who didn't shake this guys hand in this shot. It's brilliant. I couldn't stop laughing.
Oh, then there's the bit where Mac (Bloo's creator and best friend) tells him the news is to let the people know the truth, but Bloo says "the news is to sell papers, and to do that we need juicy stories, and if it's in the paper it must be true." Oh, my, wow. Project Veritas, "Russia is a nothing burger" and "our proof is from this news article that came from this news article that came from this other news article." Brilliant. Bloody brilliant.
Now for the really big thing. Bloo stalks Uncle Pockets and listens to a lot of things out of context and creates a whole narrative based on incomplete information. Then it turns out that that really isn't the case, and Uncle Pockets actually did something really good for Madam Foster (the character Bloo thought he was going to kill). I won't make this about a specific incident, but there are many things about "Trump is racist, Trump hates poor people, Trump hate's women" all because of misinformation and a lack of the whole picture. That was really great.
But it does turn out that Uncle Pockets does have a small skeleton in his closet, and that's that he keeps a memento from all the kids he's been a friend to over the years, all of which were given to him by the kids. He feels a tad ashamed as it's "unprofessional" in his mind, but all the friends think it's fine (and Bloo tries to take credit for it, even though Mac uncovered it). There are stories about Trump having some someone unsavory business ties, through like 3-4 degrees of separation, that most people just plain don't care about. And when the media thinks "this is the end" (like the "grab em by the p***y" comment), turns out it really isn't, and their work is for naught.
After that ordeal, no one trusts Bloo anymore, just like no one trusts the main stream media anymore. And after Uncle Pockets gets adopted again, Bloo goes back to writing stories about himself that no one reads. And that's what I expect in 7 years (because I expect him to be a 2 term president), the media will go back to writing fluff pieces that no one will read. Absolutely brilliant episode.
Now eagle eyed readers will know I've been very critical of "over literary analysis" and "reading deeper meaning in where there isn't any," primarily with the books I read in English class that I've managed to repress from memory. I absolutely hated "lets look at what the author actually meant" assignments and discussions. What makes this different? First off, I'm not saying "this is what the author actually meant;" quite the opposite, I'm saying "this is most certainly NOT what the author meant, but I'm going to read this into it for fun." Next and most importantly, this episode works on it's own at a surface level. You can enjoy it just for Bloo being jealous and making a news hit piece. It works on a surface level. However, if one wants something more, one can use it as a satire of the current political-media climate, and have a lot of fun with it. So no, I'm not being a hypocrite, because I'm not saying "here's an episode of Barney and Friends, and here's what the writers REALLY meant with how Barney is a metaphor for capitalism, in that he's a vicious T-rex that lulls children into a false sense of security with I love You only to devour them off screen like the greedy capitalist he is." No, Barney is a lame edutainment puppet show that doesn't appeal to anyone outside the target demographic of 1 to 4. Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends is an entertaining cartoon that can appeal to people of all ages, and works on it's own. Plus, I'm not saying "this is how you enjoy the episode," it's just fun on it's own, and I'm just having some fun with it (unlike my English teachers that never let us just enjoy a well crafted story, it always had to be about the socio-political climate of the day which it was written, and the symbols that most likely weren't actually written there).
So hopefully you can have some fun with Bloo Done It. It's on Hulu, and is included with hulu plus. Hopefully you enjoy. This has been catholiccontriversy, signing off, and may God bless you.
